Barefoot Contessa

The Barefoot Contessa is the stuff that dreams are made of. Flowery frocks, flowy tunics and tongue-in-cheek statement tees line the walls at the Mount Pleasant boutique. A t-shirt emblazoned with the word “Happy” seems emblematic of the store; this is a happy place to shop. Certainly, it’s owner Eva De Viveiros’s happy place. “My little shop is my little slice of happy,” she says.

The Barefoot Contessa is the culmination of a lot of hard work, a fair amount of dreaming and a lifetime immersed in creativity. Eva's childhood bedroom was her seamstress-mother’s sewing studio, replete with feather boas and rhinestones. When she was in theatre school, Eva began to make things — scarves, hats, silkscreened t-shirts — and sell them to friends. She would sometimes rent a table at a local craft fair to sell what she had made, and she dreamed of opening her own little shop one day.